1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an improved extracorporeal conduit and methods and systems for deriving desired biologic constituent concentration values present in a flowing fluid.
2. Background
Medical professionals routinely desire to know the hematocrit, oxygen saturation, and oxygen consumption rate of a patient. Especially in critically ill patients or in cardiovascular surgery, the oxygen consumption rate, hematocrit value and microemboli content become very significant parameters.
The prior art contains disclosures of flow-through cuvettes that may be used in a blood conduit for the spectrophotometric analysis of blood. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,456,253 discloses a disposable conduit/cuvette for analyzing blood.